No Rules To Love

Chapter Three -Part Two

“He said what?” Ashley exclaimed. Her eyes widened, and the disbelief evidently danced through her pupils. She dramatically clutched a hand to her chest. I winced from the loud noise, but I couldn't help but let myself become amused by her almost theatrical outburst.

We both sat back in our apartment — with Michael in tow, of course. Ashley had failed to see why I didn’t have much enthusiasm for our guest speaker from overseas. She eyed me with intent every time the audience would burst into applause, and I didn’t comply. As soon as we stepped foot back in our apartment, she bombarded me with questions about my foul mood. So, I told her about the brief encounter he and I had 10 minutes before the speech. The one which caused my bad mood.

My reply to her outrage was a simple, affirmative nod. I said. “I know, right?”

There wasn’t much more to say about the situation. The entire encounter had lasted a mere two minutes; there wasn’t much else to unpack, but it still felt pretty substantial. And the more I spoke about the encounter, the more annoyed I got. It appeared safer for everyone involved if I left everything at that.

Ashley fumed. Her face had gone a vivid shade of red, and her cheeks blazed scarlet. Her teeth ground together, and her hands fisted into balls at her sides. I worried about her health if the colour continued. “What an arrogant little sh—”

“Babe, language.” Michael cut through the tension. He had said little throughout the entire encounter, as he was more of a listener. He took all the facts in before making his opinion known. But he stepped in now, grabbing Ashley’s hand and rubbing soothing circles on the back of her hand, to calm her down. It seemed to work, as her face paled a little from the bright red to a more natural colour. Her breathing became less shallow, and she took one deep, final breath.

“I’m sorry. But it annoys me. There was no reason for him to be so rude. It was an accident and couldn’t be helped,” she apologised to both of us. She then looked at me with a playful glint in her eye. It was a quick switch to what she was before. “And here’s me thinking I would finally set you up with a guy.”

“Huh?” I sat up quicker than you could say ‘what you talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?‘ My eyes widened so much they almost fell out of my head. I’m sure if I'd been drinking liquid, I would’ve spat it right out. My brain scrambled for sense, panic rising, my heartbeat thudded in my ears, and my breath hitched. “You want to explain what you just said?”

Ashley chuckled, brought out of her angry mood, it appeared. “I was only thinking of you. You’ve been single for so long, I assumed Hunter would be the perfect guy for you. He’s so talented and driven. You’d be able to help each other out. Not to mention he’s so hot.” At this point, Michael sent my best friend a stern but playful look, who shrugged in response. “What? It’s true.” She didn’t let that deter her. That statement would not cause an argument between the two, so it didn’t worry me too much. “Anyway, the only thing that ruins it is his personality. You two won’t click when he’s that obnoxious. But besides that, he would’ve been perfect for you.”

“Has it ever occurred to you that I enjoy being single?” I asked her, with a shrill tightness in my voice. Though we’d already covered this. I have asked this rhetorical question countless times. “And I do have my reasons.”

Ashley rolled her eyes and threw her hand out as if to dismissively wave me off. I was starting to feel like we had rehearsed this. It has happened many times. “Oh yes, I’m aware of your rules. But you were — what? — Fifteen when you came up with these rules? Things change. People change.”

I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t reply; my jaw was stubbornly set, and a burn zipped around my chest. But there was no use arguing with her. We were both too stubborn to back down to the other, and I was too set in my ways to even consider disregarding my rules. Who knew what would happen if I did that? I could lose everything I had worked for since before I could remember... and the world would implode in on itself.

I’m not at all dramatic... honest.

It was an excellent job that I didn’t reply, because Ashley seemed to sense my tension and steered the conversation away from my rules and that particularly serious topic. That pleased me at once. She groaned, but her expression was amused. “Oh God, and you’re going to have to work with him this week!”

Can we go back to talking about my rules, please?

“Ugh!” I groaned and covered my face with my hands, as if to shield myself from this new form of dread, although I was glad we were back to joking. Though the topic of conversation did make me want the ground to swallow me whole. “Don’t even remind me!”

Hunter had finished his speech and, as much as I was loath to admit it — internally at least — it was quite helpful. The speech gave me a flutter of hope, and an excited tingle fluttered in my stomach at the thought of my future. But his arrogance still shone through with every word he spoke. Every time I think of something positive, plenty of negatives come along with it. When rapturous applause and cheers met the end of the speech, Ms Carter joined him on the stage. Hunter made a show of thanking his ex-teacher and thanking the audience, and took a step back. This was where Ms Carter broke the news. The wonderful news was that Hunter would help us out with the last few rehearsals of West Side Story. He would take on the role of Assistant Director. You can imagine how ecstatic I was to find out that news.

Not.

Ms Carter let us out of rehearsals that night because of all the so-called excitement about Hunter's visit. Seriously, this school sucked up to him so much, it was unbelievable. I mean, he wasn’t the only successful actor to come out of Mountview. Look at our alumni list. There’s an array of highly successful performers in and out of the doors all the time. And it wasn't as if Hunter needed an ego boost. He had a big enough ego to go around the entire school... Twice.

Because of the day off, we would have an extra-long rehearsal tomorrow. This also meant that we all had a pass to be out of normal lessons and lectures. Now, extra rehearsals I didn’t mind. I enjoyed rehearsals and knew the importance of ensuring the show exuded perfection on opening night. But it annoyed me that we would miss a full day of rehearsals today, just because of this one person who had come back to impart his knowledge. Why did Hunter have so much authority that he made us lose an entire day of rehearsals?

Although the thought of a full day of rehearsals relaxed me with a familiar sense of excitement, it also meant I had to contend with Hunter’s ego for the entire day.

I just burst with excitement at the notion. Note the sarcasm...